Joshua J. Darling enters his first year as Sports Information Director at Alabama A&M, following a decade in that role at Division II Clayton State University and at Limestone College along with two years as the Assistant Director of Media Relations at the College of Charleston and a year as the full-time Sports Information Intern at Chattanooga.
Over the course of his career Darling has covered 50 championships, 44 NCAA Tournament appearances, eight College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-Americas, 21 CoSIDA Academic All-District honorees, 60 All-Americans, 145 All-Region/District selections, 288 All-Conference choices and 196 weekly honorees. Included among those championships was the 2014 NCAA Division II Men’s Lacrosse National Championship with Limestone.
CLAYTON STATE UNIVERSITY (2014-20, SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR)
After joining Clayton State in October of 2014, Darling spearheaded a number of changes to the operation of the SID Office. Chief among those was relaunching the athletics website,
www.ClaytonStateSports.com, through industry leader SIDEARM in October of 2015 and then again in August of 2019.
Serving as the “front porch” for Athletics, the new site provided a bold new look that features easier navigation, a full-width story rotator to capitalize on Laker photography, a FanZone with all the links fans needed to follow Clayton State as well as social media, video and photo gallery sections.
Darling also developed comprehensive bios for all student-athletes and, tied in with both versions of the new website, that included their complete career history, rotating action shots, career stats and links to stories they have appeared in to provide a “one stop shop” for their career – both while they are still playing and for years down the road.
In order to bring the Lakers extensive history to light, he also formed a partnership with the Clayton State Archives to make the department’s 30 years of success available online to the general public. A continuous initiative, it included researching all rosters, bios, schedules and results for each sport and making them active on
www.ClaytonStateSports.com in such a way that the Lakers athletics alumni are represented in a manner similar to today’s student-athletes.
Additionally, Darling was responsible for the gameday staffing for home soccer and basketball events where he managed a staff of 13 individuals ranging from students, external staff and athletic department staff throughout the year to ensure quality events.
Along with this, he moved nearly all photography in-house, increasing both the amount and quality of all photography while producing savings of thousands of dollars for the department with the purchase of a new professional grade camera. This also allowed for greater flexibility in the scheduling of headshots, team pics and game photography to work around team schedules.
He also successfully campaigned for 22 Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week recipients, six Daktronics/D2CCA All-Region honorees and 11 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections. The latter surpassed the previous program total of three winners and included the first ever First-Team Academic All-America.
Outside of his primary responsibilities as Sports Information Director, Darling also served on a number of Clayton State committees, including Digital Signage, Social Media, Marketing Advisory Council and formerly the Information Technology Committee. He also served as a contributing writer for
Laker Connection, Clayton State’s official alumni magazine.
Within Athletics, he was also a member of the Hall of Fame, Annual Athletics Banquet and Laker Golf Classic committees with a significant role in achieving successful events over multiple years. In 2017-18 he was named to the Department's Senior Staff which helps direct and guide the efforts of Clayton State Athletics.
LIMESTONE COLLEGE (2010-14, SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR)
At Limestone, he was directly responsible for oversight of all media relations efforts for 25 sports and served as the primary contact for field hockey, women's volleyball, men's basketball, men's tennis, men's volleyball and men’s and women's lacrosse. He also served as the web master for the College's athletic site,
www.GoLimestoneSaints.com and was the primary contact for the 2014 NCAA Division II Men’s Lacrosse National Champions.
Having joined the Limestone College Athletics Department in the Summer of 2010, he oversaw media coverage for the second largest Division II athletic department in the country and helped to increase the Sports Information Department staff to three full-time employees.
The SID staff grew from two part-time individuals to three full-time employees and a number of interns and student assistants during his tenure, which allowed the office to fully staff all home events and provide live stats for those sports where possible. During his tenure he also engineered a pair of relaunches of the athletic website, expanded the coverage of all athletic events and improved the live stat interface for all sports.
In terms of coverage, all events had a full release out the same day as the competition with links to boxscores and final results. Instead of standard live stats, volleyball, field hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, baseball and softball were each upgraded to Flash Stats through SIDEARM which provide fans with a more enjoyable experience.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (2008-10, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF MEDIA RELATIONS)
During his two years at the College of Charleston, Darling was the primary contact for women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving and softball and also assumed women’s basketball and men’s tennis duties in February of 2010.
After taking over those roles as a result of a staff change, Darling handled all media responsibilities for a 20-plus win women’s basketball team that reached the East Region Finals of the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) and a men’s tennis team that went undefeated in the Southern Conference to claim the regular season title.
Darling also assisted with men’s and women’s basketball during his time at CofC, including serving as the media relations contact for the men’s victory over No. 9 North Carolina on January 4, 2010. He was also responsible for being the official scorer during home women’s basketball games and designed the 2008-09 men’s basketball media guide his first year. He also assumed photography duties at most home basketball games in 2009-10, producing pictures used on the Cougars’ athletic website.
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA (2007-08, SPORTS INFORMATION INTERN)
While at Chattanooga during the 2007-08 season, Darling was the primary contact for the volleyball program and the 2007 Southern Conference Champion softball team. He assisted with game-day operations for the Sports Information Office for football and basketball and was responsible for the production of the 2007-08 Cross Country and Track media guide. Additionally, he served as in-game contact for SportsTicker during the 2007 FCS National Championship game and worked with ESPNU during coverage of Chattanooga's men's basketball home game with No. 10 Tennessee.
BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY (2006-07, GRADUATE SPORTS INFORMATION INTERN)
Darling began his career as the Graduate Sports Information Intern at Binghamton University in 2006-07, serving as the assistant contact for women's basketball where he was responsible for writing game stories, assisting with production of game notes and programs and proofing the media guide. He also assisted with coverage of men's basketball, men's and women's soccer and wrestling.
He also served as the official scorer for the America East Men's Soccer Championship in 2006 and filled several roles during the 2007 America East Women's Basketball Tournament, including assisting Madison Square Garden (MSG), the New England Sports Network (NESN) and ESPN with their coverage of the tournament.
In all, Darling brings over 25 years of experience working with athletics from the high school and junior college ranks and all three Divisions of the NCAA, with the past 10 coming in Division II athletics. That experience includes work primarily with basketball, volleyball, softball, baseball, track & field/cross country, soccer and lacrosse in a variety of capacities.
EDUCATION
A 2001 graduate of Ithaca College, Darling holds a Bachelor's degree in Television and Radio and also earned his Master's degree in Sport Management and Media from Ithaca in 2007. He also holds an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts (Journalism) from Fulton-Montgomery Community College, earned in 1999.
A native of Johnstown, New York, Darling is married to his wife, the former Jennifer Jemmott.
